On a crisp morning that warmed up quickly I went to dog park and had about 90 minutes before family festivities would begin. I had a setup change. 8.5 with Slace (ace baseplate and bushings with slappy hanger because they are lighter). I liked it. I was sore from bad holiday eating and drinking, but had some motivation. I didn’t stick totally do it, but got a warm up line that sounds good on paper. Front 50 180 out the lurb, halfcab noseslide the bench, back 50 180 out the curb. My back 50s on the curb felt really good on this setup. My front 50s felt good on the lower stuff, but I still struggled to 50 the bench. I would get a couple accidental 5-0s. The ledges felt incredibly sticky for slides for some reason I don’t understand. I guess the overnight freeze? I don’t know but slides were really weird. My ollies onto the pads felt good, never quite got manuals but I only tried a couple. Had a line of crooks the bench, back 50 the curb, ollie the kinked bar. Last line was to ollie the little flat bar, front board the metal bench, front nosegrind 180 the curb. The ollies in that line were so fun, front boards were bad, nosegrind 180 was not so good but it was like 3rd try. I had done a few other things, flippers didn’t work well as one would expect when changing to a larger board. Anyway, fun session.

(setup 6/10 nullosaur 8.5, jessup ultragrip, slace 8.5, 52mm spitfire f4 classic shape orange/black swirl 99a, new balance numeric 440v2 wide navy size 12 footprint gamechanger insoles)
(pain 5/10)

As the sun set I went to dog park. Eric was there, Will would be shortly. Eric was charging as usual. Had some cool boardslide transfers over the barrier, lipslides on Dave’s parking block, manuals and more. I was able to get the switch nose revert on the bank to curb in a couple of tries, but then I went on to take forever to get a warm up line. Slappy crooks Dave’s block, front 50 the green box, ollie nose stall the bank to curb, fakie 50 the green bench. Seriously took way too long and I felt so dumb how I struggled to setup for the 50 in 20′ after the slappy crooks. Will had gone to battle with back tails on the main bench, then an even longer battle to do it after a nose manual. I had done a few things on the benches that were pretty whatever. Went in pretty hard on kickflip back 50 on the taller pad, but could never get it. Flip tricks felt impossible. Argh, tough night.

(setup 2/10 null 8.25 keyhole 2, null grip, venture v8 5.6 with hollow axle and bones medium bushings, 52mm spitfire f4 99a classic shape orange/black, new balance numeric 440v2 wide size 12 navy with half old 440 insole and gamechanger lite insoles)
(pain level 5/10)

Met Dave as the cold darkness settled in at dog park. There were some youth charging it and filming. Dave was already there trying a switch nose jib revert on the bank to curb. This became a trick we tried for a while with various lines. I’ve skated dog park since so it’s confusing what went down this day. But I know Dave had some good 50’s and 5-0s on his parking block, kickflips and a fakie flip on flat, manuals the weird pad and nose picks to fakie on the bank to curb both ways I think. I had done a few little front boards on the concrete wallie bar things and changed a line around until finally getting slappy front crook, ugly b/s flip, switch nose jib revert. Also a front smith stall then front 50 the green ledge. Dave left as had everyone else. I skated the main ledge area for a bit, really struggled with front 50s on the main bench and got depressed about it. Had several manuals on the little pad though which is rare for me.

(setup 2/10 null 8.25 keyhole 2, null grip, venture v8 5.6 with hollow axle and bones medium bushings, 52mm spitfire f4 99a classic shape orange/black, new balance numeric 574 vulc 11.5 gamechanger insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

On a windy sunny day I went to the garage in the late afternoon. I had put Venture V8s on my new 8.25 and man it felt better. After a warmup I started flipping and kickflips took a bit. I wanted to try all the straight 8, but didn’t want to spend a lot of time on it. So I tried 5 tries on the ones I can’t do, but heelflip and especially fakie heelflip took forever. Treflip took me quite a while too but I did land on one and slam in the first couple tries. I rotated in a lot of hucking but still managed to land 10 flippers.

kickflip
Fakie flip
heelflip
fakie heelflip
b/s flip
treflip
halfcab flip
halfcab heelflip
f/s halfcab flip
varial flip

I was happy I was 3/5 on backside flips, got a couple halfcab flips in a row, f/s halfcab flip was really hard with the weird angle I have in my garage (well I guess all tricks are hard in that little space) and ended with 3 varial flops in a row.

(setup 7/10 null 8.25 keyhole 2, null grip, ace 44 af1 hollow spanky, 52mm spitfire f4 99a, new balance numeric 440v2 wide blue size 12 half old 440 insole and gamechanger light insole)
(pain level 2/10 seriously no idea how I felt fine but I did and it’s even weirder because I had a few drinks the night before)

Paul, Eric, Jack B and I rolled to the fun mellow Thornton park where we met Jesse and Gordon. The park was not crowded at any point and the temp was really nice. Paul and Gordon were popping way too quickly, but they are in their 30s so I guess it’s allowed. We skated for a few hours. I did not skate well, but a few things went alright. I had a couple fakie bigflips, one into a tiny bank, lots of crooks on the tall ledge, one very slow front 50 on the tall ledge but I was still happy about it, ended on a nollie tail the mini hubba off the curb followed by a b/s flop over the mini hump. Jack charged it, some noseslides, slappies, boardslides. Eric ripping, front 50 and front 50 180 out the mellow mini hubba, front tails the concrete ledge. Paul front smith over the manny pad, ollied the two stair, 50s everywhere, manuals, had some good slams, ollied up the bank to bank gap. Gordon aka Mr Pop ollied the bank to bank gap, 50d the tall edge with speed, also got a front smith over the manny pad, front tail the bank to curb. Good seeing Jesse he had some noseslides on the tall ledge, ollied the bank to bank gap, some good shoves. I’m missing a ton, we skated a long time, it was pretty fun.

(setup 3/10 null 8.25 keyhole 2, null grip, ace 44 af1 hollow spanky, 52mm spitfire f4 99a, new balance numeric 574 vulc blue 11.5 footprint gamechanger insoles)
(pain level 5/10 some weird foot pain)

Went to Boulder park on a sunny and breezy Friday for a quick lunch session. Warming up was tough, man them new wheels and bearings are so fast it’s hard to get used to. I would have an alright little session and basically had it all to myself. One line was front 50 the qp, nose stall the hubba, front 50 shove out the bench. Took a bit to get used to the ace pinch on crooks. Struggled with flippers. Hucked a few nollie big heels on the hump which seemed doable. Got one front d on the qp. Glad I skated.

(setup 5/10 null 8.25 keyhole 2, null grip, ace 44 af1 hollow spanky, 52mm spitfire f4 99a, new balance numeric 440v2 wide navy size 12 with old 440 half insole and currex runpro)
(pain level 5/10)

After dinner on a cool night I took my new christmas complete to Broomfield. One dude was there when I got there but left. Then it was just Will and I for a while, another dude and Justin showed. So it was really nice how chill it was. Now if it only translated to good skateboarding for me. I was really sore, maybe overdid my workout earlier in the day. Anyway, I had zero pop. Only thing I was happy with were some slappy crooks, one front 50 180 on the blue lurb, front slashes on the bank to curb. I had a warm up run of front 50 the blue ledge, rock fakie, switch front nose, halfcab noseslide the black ledge, couldn’t do a simple noseslide to fakie on the bank to ledge. Doh. Struggled with front 50s on the black ledge even though I normally had the pop. Makes sense since I had a new setup. I had worn vulcs again, but changed them to 440s later on. Will rips them ledges. Front tails, back nosegrinds and some really good nollie noseslides. We closed on a game of SKATE in which he got me on fakie flip, halfcab flip and b/s flip. My freakin’ tricks! We played two games and we gave up on the second, I was in too much pain. I was really close to some nollie tres at least.

(setup 5/10 null 8.25 keyhole 2, null grip, ace 44 af1 hollow spanky, 52mm spitfire f4 99a, new balance numeric 574 vulc then 440v2 wide half insoles)
(pain level 7/10)

On a cold night I went out to the garage on a new setup. I’ve done a bunch of journal researching and this really seems like a good setup for me to stick with. I’m sure I wont, but I hope I do. The Spanky Ace’s are slightly lighter. I hope that helps. Anyway, my body wasn’t feeling too good. I did some warming up with 180s and stuff, took a bit to get a shove I was happy with then did a few kickflips which felt good. Switch flips after were not close. Halfcab heels were somewhat close. I took about 35 tries to get a treflip, but I had landed on several of them. Hucked nollie varial heel unsuccessfully then ended on some really bad frontside flip attempts with a could kickflips I skirted around 180.

(setup 5/10 null 8.25 keyhole 2, null grip, ace 44 af1 hollow spanky, 52mm spitfire f4 99a, new balance numeric 574 vulc blue 11.5 half insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

After a nice morning with the wife I went out with very little motivation to find something different. And I did, I found this “little” gap that I thought would be fun to ollie. I skated an 8.3 with Indys. It had great pop, that is it. I had a warm up line of kickflip, ollie up a curb, ollie a very tiny gap. Then I tried this gap and didn’t have the guts to commit.

Went to this nearby ‘sorry excuse for a bank to curb’. Not shown are the ruts and worse asphalt you get to ride through. Anyway, I took a little bit to get a front tail. Talked to a snow bro that works at the cannibas place about snowboarding a nearby rail. Then went hucked a couple kickflip axle stalls I thought would work. A million tries later I focused my board like a baby. I was in disbelief I couldn’t land it. Guess it shows why I won Stubborn Of The Year a few years back.

(setup 2/10 8.3 null smoke valley, jessup ultragrip, indy 149 forged hollows with bones medium bushings, 53mm bones stf v1 103a pj, new balance numeric 574 vulc 11.5 half insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

On a really nice day I rolled to Denver and met up with Cass, Kyle and Ryan at a newish DIY spot. It’s got some qps and a curb that are pretty fantastic. Well, the qps are a little gnar for me, but I’m a wuss. Kyle had just done his trick and hurt his back so he was out. Cass was on the slappies right away. Says he just learned them because of this spot. Took me a bit to get the confidence to skate it like a qp like Cass was, but they were really fun. Had an early line of slappy front crook then rock ‘n roll the qp. The glorified f/s kickturn then regular slappy was really fun. I had a b/s flip after too. Ryan had really good slappy feebles and almost got bluntslide to fakie 50. Then we went to York St. It was a pretty fun session although I took too long to do a front slash on the tiny bank to pool coping section followed by front 50 the little slappy curb. I ended up mostly trying to skate the ledge on the outside. Never quite got a front 50, my pop was lacking. A first try crooks made up for it. Ryan had a nice nollie noseblunt on the parking block. I think Cass did halfcab blunt. Fun session.

(setup 3/10 null 8.5/14.25 20 year deck, null jessup ultragrip, thunder hollow lite 149 bones medium bushings, 52mm bones stf v1 103a, new balance numeric 574 vulc blue size 11.5 with half insoles)
(pain level 3/10)